Some unwritten pressupositions of OST

[Joelle Lyons Everett]

In a message dated 5/28/02 11:58:03 AM, chris at CHRISCORRIGAN.COM writes:

<< Meeting people online and then in person turns on it's head the way we
interact
socially.  Now the last thing we do is shake someone's hand.  We first get
into
their brain, their thoughts and feelings, often hear them in a phone call
before
meeting and then when we see them for the first time, we notice their physical
appearance and then we touch.  It is the opposite in many ways with how we
are used
to relating, from the outside in.  In it's most benign form, this poses an
interesting challenge to our notions of bias, as skin colour, appearance,
gender
and so on play less and less a role in building community.  It took me about
a year
before I figured out that Chris Weaver was a man, for example.  ( :-) )

Chris and Artur--

I'm very much enjoying this conversation about the differences between online
and embodied experience of each other.  I got acquainted with Chris Weaver,
for example, in just the sequence you describe--and when I had an opportunity
to visit him in Asheville, found that his online persona was very much like
his presence, not much prevarication.  I'm sitting here at my computer
scanning my (human) memory to see if I have ever met you in person, and I
think the answer is "No," though we have talked online and by phone and
poetry, and I count you among my friends--how can it be we have never met in
person?  Jay Vogt cracked me up (and honored me) by telling me, when we first
met in person, that he imagined me to be 30 and bouncy, a conclusion he might
not have reached in person just on the basis of all the gray hairs!

My husband Paul has for years held the belief that creativity cancels age,
and in this forum, we are in touch directly with each other's creativity, and
out of touch with whatever assumptions we might carry (deliberately or
unconsciously) about age, gender, ethnicity, vocation or nationality.

I love face-to-face meetings, and am delighted to be in the midst of helping
an organization plan its first Open Space conference.  In my animal body, I
enjoy sensing the warmth, energy and presence of other human animals.  On the
other hand, I can't tell you how many days I open an e-mail on the OSList and
am moved to tears or laughter by someone's heartfelt message, that person's
presence both real and alive in the words that show up on the screen.  So I
feel that I have access to two wonderful worlds, though I'm just learning how
to navigate between them.  It's an interesting challenge, and a bit of a
mystery--Thanks, Artur, for starting this conversation.

Joelle Everett

 >>

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